Of note this week: AHRQ has published a notice of intent to publish a funding opportunity announcement for a network to develop evidence to inform comparative effectiveness decisions in patient-centered outcomes research. The network, called DEcIDE, will link together centers performing comparative effectiveness research on topics identified as critically important by stakeholders in Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP. There are several reasons for calling this notice to the attention of HealthLawProf readers.

First, as we all know, there are great--but highly controversial--hopes for using CER to help in modulating increases in health care costs. Lurking under the controversy are a host of legal issues, including risks that certain cutback designs may discriminate against persons with disabilities.

Second, the AHRQ published this as a notice of intent to allow centers to assemble teams of people interested in health policy. Specifically, "applicants will need to form partnerships with stakeholders representing multiple perspectives, including such groups as patients, providers, payers, purchasers, administrators, policymakers, consumer organizations, community groups, professional societies, State Medicaid Medical Directors and/or regional Medicare Carriers." It seems to me anyway that healthlawprofs might have quite a bit to say about the choice of topics--and might well want to know about and participate in any proposals from their institutions or communities.

The actual notice is expected to be issued in late winter, for a proposal submission date in late spring 2013.